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Author Jim Scheers delved into his own experiences at a 1980s punk club for his debut novel, “This is What You Want, This is What You Get.”

Those experiences allowed him to sketch realistic characters and genuine settings that set off a story relatable to anyone who’s ever felt the need for something more in their life. Scheers talked about how he used his notes from his club-going days for the novel, where he got the title and his influences with JumpStart!:

CV: What inspired you to write “This is What You Want, This is What You Get”?

JS: Throughout the latter half of the 80s I went to a club called City Gardens in Trenton, New Jersey. It was a scary club in a scary neighborhood, but it was salvation. Punk bands played there every week, and on Sundays you could see four hardcore bands for like ten bucks.

I wanted to recreate this unique moment, when you had a vital underground community that was either ignored or reviled by mostly everyone. I want the reader to experience the same feelings that I had walking through the beat-up wooden doors: discovery, trepidation, exhilaration. The sense of liberation you feel when you come upon something unexpected and new.

CV: The story follows a young man named Nick as he navigates the Trenton, New Jersey punk scene. The description in the novel works well to paint the 321 Club and its denizens, from a girl with “dark hair hanging like tar” to a man at the bar reading a paperback while banging his fist to the music. How did your own experiences help you to create the character and the club for the novel?

JS: I kept journals the whole time I was going to punk shows. I’d come home and scribble things down while my ears were still ringing. So the first thing I did when I started the novel was use those old steno pads to sketch out a fictional version of the club and the people there. I wanted to stay true to the scene and not embellish or change anything for the sake of plot or dramatics, so all the descriptions of the bands, right down to the stage banter, was taken from my old notes.

With the main character, Nick, I didn’t want to go with the punk/rebel stereotype you see in a lot of mainstream entertainment. I was much more interested in the people I met there who were navigating “normal” society and the underground scene. Basically, learning how to live on your own terms. Which is what Nick, in his bumbling, fitful yet determined way, is trying to do.

CV: While Nick’s story is set against the punk scene, do you think readers unfamiliar with the scene can relate to the character and his feelings? Why or why not?

JS: Everyone has experienced that feeling that there must be something more to my life than this. Nick wants to escape from this conformist cattle chute he seems destined for, but he has no idea how. Going to the club, and seeing these bands thrashing away on stage with no thought of fame or money (which in the 80’s was a revolutionary concept) and meeting people he would never meet otherwise if he stayed in his tiny suburban town, he realizes there are other ways of living your life. He has choices, if he’s willing to face the consequences. I think everyone runs into that at some point—liberty and individuality versus the comforts of conformity. And that’s what the story is really about.

CV: Where does the title come from?

JS: It’s from a Public Image Limited song, “The Order of Death.” While that’s more of a British, post-punk song instead of American hardcore, the tone of that phrase describes how it felt when the scene started to fracture and fade. There was this sense that it could’ve been something more. Having said that though, it’s been encouraging to see the resurgence of interest in this scene, with non-fiction books like “No Slam Dancing, No Stage Diving, No Spikes” and documentaries like “Riot on the Dance Floor.” The energy is still there.

CV: As a graduate of the Wilkes creative writing program, what would you say was the best part about your experience there?

JS: The friendships I made. After about 20 years of writing pretty much in solitude, it was a relief to realize I wasn’t alone, that I wasn’t the only weirdo that would stay up late just to finish the sentence “It was like . . .” There’s this mythology of the lone writer struggling in his or her garret, but really, every artist needs a community.

CV: Who are your influences as a writer, whether other writers or musicians?

JS: Hemingway, Raymond Carver, Stephen Elliott. I also admire writers who aren’t as laconic, such as Lorrie Moore and Lydia Millet.

All of the bands depicted in my book were a huge influence, not just on the spirit of it but also the language. I tried to make my sentences match the start-stop pacing and clipped wording of the punk songs I liked. But the two biggest influences on my book were actually two graphic novelists (comic book writer/artists). Jaime Hernandez’s “Love & Rockets” taught me how to see people, how they reveal themselves through gesture and posture. And John Porcellino’s “Perfect Example” showed me how to use silence, to leave space around the words, so the reader can enter into the story.

CV: Are you working on any other projects?

JS: Well, I’m almost done with my disco novel (kidding!). I’m working on some short stories right now and will soon get back to work on a novel I started last year. It too is set in the Jersey suburbs but it also has orcs and elves in it, because, as they say, write what you know.

kgaydos@citizensvoice.com, 570-821-2118

Name: Jim Scheers

Residence: Philadelphia

Book: This Is What You Want, This Is What You Get

Book release date: May 2, 2014

Publisher: Northampton House

How available: Available as an e-book; available in trade paperback in January 2015

Other books: This is my first published novel.

Describe your book in one word: Live.

Describe your book in 100 words or fewer: My book is about suburban punks caught between a brutal underground scene where they finally feel free to be themselves, and a complacent home life that has given them everything but the answers they need. Most of the story takes place at the 321 Club, which is the only place for miles around to see punk bands. For Nick, facing a future of office cubicles and diminishing choices, the club promises a chance to find an identity and a community. If he can survive it.

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